In this episode, Jason and Doug address what they coined “The Dip.” This new trend is what many salon owners are experiencing after re-opening their salons, it happens when your salon gets flooded with business and then it starts to slow down. The two of them discuss how guest experience, marketing and pre-booking strategies can alleviate you from experiencing “the dip.”
Key Takeaways:
2:44 Are you experiencing “the dip?”
6:14 What kind of experience are you allowing your guests to have post-pandemic?
9:47 Advertising and Marketing for your salon
15:23 Alter your focus to what your guests are lacking
17:24 You’re the curator of how you lead
Quotes:
“People are coming into your salon because they want to feel amazing they’re being made to look amazing!” (Doug) (6:35)
“Your marketing should be changing every 10 to 14 days right now.” (Jason) (14:09)
Links Mentioned:
Join our Academy : https://highperformancesalon.com/
Jason Everett:
On today's show we're going to talk about something called the dip, what happens when your salon gets flooded with business and then it starts to slow down. That's all on today's show.
Jason Everett:
Salon owners are some of the most amazing people on planet earth. The only problem is sometimes their hearts are so big, and they give so much of themselves to their staff and guests, that it creates unintended consequences. Our goal is to change the industry by elevating the way the rest of the world sees salons, spas, and barbershops and give it the credibility that it truly deserves. This is the Salon Owner Evo Revo Show.
Jason Everett:
Hey, what's going on everybody. It's Jason Everett. I'm hanging out here with Mr. Doug Campbell. What's up, Doug?
Doug Campbell:
How's it going?
Jason Everett:
Dude, glad to have you on today. We were talking about this ... I went and I saw a gal who just cut my kid's hair, my across the street neighbors cut my kid's hair the other day. She said, ... Shout out to [Deviney 00:01:02] by the way, if Deviney's watching, she mentioned this. Deviney said to me, she said, You know, Jason, we had this big flood of business where everybody came in and we were slammed, and like this week it's starting to slow down. Doug, you've been hearing that, too, like people are kind of ... They've been going along, going along, and now they've hit this dip. This dip has kind of happened and everybody is saying, Okay, people got their hair cut now. They're no longer freaking out about how soon can I get to my stylist, and salons all over the country are experiencing this dip, yeah?
Doug Campbell:
Yeah. It is funny. Some people are, they're attributing it to all kinds of different things. Someone is like, Oh, people are getting scared because there's a resurgence or ... It has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with that you just did two months of hair inside of a couple of weeks, or a month, so now they-
Jason Everett:
It's obvious. We had some salons do their best month ever in two weeks. I mean that's just unheard of. By the way, if you're experiencing this dip process do me a favor and type in the comments if you're on with us live, do me a favor and type in the word "dip," D-I-P. Also, want to know just for sake of podcasts, and everything else, do me a favor and type in the chat where you are on from. I would love to find out where in the country, or where around the world, you are on the line from as you're hanging out with us here on today's podcast.
Jason Everett:
I think, Doug, it's kind of an interesting management thing because there's some salons that are just going to do what I think ... Most salons, frankly, are going to do this, is that they're going to stand back and they're just going to go, Well, I guess that's just what's happening. People have just, they've gone away. There's nothing we can do. We're just going to deal with it and, I guess wait for them all to come back. So, what do you predict as a salon owner? What are you waiting for? What are you preparing for? I think that's going to be really helpful, and then I'm going to give you guys tons of ideas, too.
Doug Campbell:
There's two things. One, some people are starting to experience the dip, and other people are like, No, I'm still super busy. If you look forward on your books you'll probably see that dip. You'll see that it's starting to come. The thing is, so what do you do? One of the things is, because what's going to happen you'll come out of that dip in a few weeks and you're going to be really busy again.
Jason Everett:
Yeah.
Doug Campbell:
How do we handle that? One, in pre-booking you need to look and see, who can I pre-book a little shorter, and who can I pre-book a little longer. Those two things will start to kind of spread that out so it's not as big of a fluctuation. What I really like is the opportunity on those dips to do like ... We just did a program the other day on care marketing of how to market from the right perspective during this time that comes off as authentic and draws people to you. Doing that right now when you see that dip coming, upping that type of care marketing, because now if we have the opportunity to fill that dip in with new guests, so now that we're just raising the level across the board and we're just becoming busier across the board. I think it's a combination of the way that you pre-book people and to stretch it out a little bit, and then also using it as an opportunity to bring new guests in and get them on your books, because people are opening at different times. There's a lot of stylist swapping going on. I'll say. People are-
Jason Everett:
Right. There's a lot. I mean, again, I always give Lindsay Haney credit for this one in the Academy, but she calls them the Get Around Cards encouraging stylists to let their guests work with other stylists which, again, if you're in a team-based salon, or a commission-based salon, and you're trying to figure out how do you get everybody on the books? Don't be afraid to put other guests with other stylists and let them have a backup stylist. Do you know what I mean?
Doug Campbell:
Even from people leaving maybe the salon that they were at. They weren't thrilled with it, and now the comeback is that opportunity, without having to seem like a bad person, to switch.
Jason Everett:
Right.
Doug Campbell:
You weren't communicating well. They took you for granted, or that the experience at your normal salon they've just really has got the whole dictate up on the wall of all the things we're not going to do and what you have to do and so-
Jason Everett:
Oh man. Talk about that for a second because we actually snuck that in. Not to get into like care marketing forever, but I think that's really, really important, because I'm going to say this, Doug, as brutal as this might be to say, I think some people went back to their salon and they didn't like the experience that was going on. We talked about this a lot inside the Academy, so you guys are getting as much of this being outside the Academy as possible. There's a lot of salons that just put up these signs that said, Don't do this. Don't do that.
Doug Campbell:
Stop.
Jason Everett:
No shoes, no shirts, no service. No mask, no ... Do you know what I mean? I have a neighbor who at their house, not the same neighbor I just talked about, different neighbor, but it says like no soliciting, no girl scout cookies, no religion, no whatever, and I'm like, What an inviting household? There's a welcome mat and there's kind of a FU mat. It's the FU mat, right? A lot of salons ended up sending out the wrong message by putting up a giant stop sign.
Jason Everett:
I was actually standing inside the salon when I got my boy's haircut, standing inside the salon looking outside and people were walking up the window to walk in and then they kind of like would freeze, and they look do you have your mask on properly, and all this stuff. Then they kind of like didn't know what to do. I'm like, wow, what a great, amazing salon experience to walk into a punch in the face before you get there. There's a lot of wrong ways to do this right now.
Doug Campbell:
The thing is, you emphasize ... It is what it is, and we're having to do the proper safety aspects and precautions, but that should not be the focus. People aren't coming there to be wrapped up in face mask, and sanitized, and sprayed down, and all that stuff. They're coming there for an experience. They've missed the experience for a couple of months. They're coming there for the experience. They want to feel amazing while they're being made to look amazing.
Jason Everett:
Totally.
Doug Campbell:
I think that's an important thing. It's not just the service, it's the experience. So, as a salon you need to stay focused on that, because I can tell you we've gotten a ton of new guests because our guests are like, Oh my God, I just missed this so much, and they're telling their friends, and their friends are like, That wasn't my experience. My experience was-
Jason Everett:
Yeah.
Doug Campbell:
Come in-
Jason Everett:
Like not my salon. My salon forced me on lockdown, and tied me up, and did all these things.
Doug Campbell:
Right, and everybody was talking about how the world's ending, and everything's terrible, and we're not going to blow dry your hair today. It's like ... So, we're just gaining guests from that because our guests are talking about the experience, and then they're sending people like ... You know, I was starting to get uncomfortable with that. I'm ready for a change. I'm going to go to a new place. I want ... Because you can do the experience and still be safe. They're not mutually exclusive, which I think that's what people have gotten confused about.
Jason Everett:
Yeah, and I think ... So this is really important. So we're talking about managing the dip. We're managing the dip and saying, How do we make sure that you don't just have a fall off in clients and customers? So there's a couple of things. If you've experienced that dip, do me a favor, like I said, comment with the word "dip" because I want to know. Here's the thing, is that there's a couple of things contributing to the dip. Number one, are you scaring clients and customers off because your experience when they come in the salon is less than optimum? Are you telling them all the don'ts?
Jason Everett:
I saw my friend, Matt Beck. He said something really good while salons were closed. Again, freesaloneducation.com. You can go check out Matt's stuff. He does an incredible show. I've been on his podcast a couple of times. He's a great dude. He said something really easy. He said, Instead of telling guests what they can't do, this was during quarantine. Instead of telling guests what they can't do while they're gone, don't dye your own hair, don't cut your own hair. Don't touch it, just wait for me. You know, #waitformystylist. What he said was instead of telling them what not to do, can we tell them what they can do?
Jason Everett:
I think that attitude parlays over really well into what we're talking about here, Doug, is that instead of telling your guests, If you don't have a mask you can't come in. If you don't do that, versus like talking to them about what they can do. We're still going to be able to give you a world-class treatment. We're still going to be able to give you all these exciting things. We're still going to be able to do your hair, mask or no mask, and just a mask is a part of it. Not just like temperature gun in your face, mask on your face, like a giant Hazmat suit. Again, this isn't about scare tactics, this is about getting it done.
Jason Everett:
So number one thing is are you unintentionally scaring away your guests because of all your safety protocols that are in place? I'm not saying remove the safety protocols, I'm just saying, how are you positioning it is, does it have some humor to it? Is it being fun? Are you ... Again, we talked about this in lots of things that we've been doing in the Academy is, what are the conversations that your stylists are actually having with the guests? Meaning did you tell the stylist to talk positively about things that are going on, or are they just right back to talking about drama, and issues, and all the, What was the worst thing that happened to you during? Think about how you want that guest to leave, how you want them to feel, what experience do you want them to walk away with? Did they feel cared for, loved on, and appreciated, or did they feel taken care of like a number in a factory? I think that will contribute to the dip.
Jason Everett:
Second thing you mentioned, Doug, was about marketing and advertising, is that if you don't have a marketing machine, and we do a bunch of programs on that. We have in our Million Dollar Salon and Spa Program, we do a ton of marketing. We also have our social media crash course where we talk about marketing. I think if you don't create ... Doug, in our genius model for kind of how the salon works we talk about something called a marketing machine. A marketing machine is something that you can turn on and turn off and it delivers guests to you. In fact, we have people who've gone through and created the marketing machine that we recommend. They can for $20-30 put a new guest in a seat.
Doug Campbell:
Right.
Jason Everett:
Like that's super, super important is knowing if you spend $200 that you're going to get 10 guests through the door. That's a really, really important thing to be aware of it. If you don't have that marketing machine, and that's not set up, guess what, you're going to experience that slump and that dip because you're just waiting for them to pre-book. The third thing you said, Doug, was pre-book. Sorry, I jumped in there. I just want to get all three of those in. So we've got, ... So the first one up on the deck is making sure the experience is great. Second one is advertising. Third one is managing your pre-book. I know you wanted to say something. Go ahead, Man.
Doug Campbell:
I'm going through the three of those. One, the experience because that's going to get you a lot of referrals. You do the experience better than anybody else is doing the experience that's going to start putting people into those dips. So, that's a great way. The marketing ... So once you've got what you're doing, you've got the right message. So there's two different things. You've got the functionality part of it, and then you've got the message that you're sticking in there. Of course, that message is going to need to change over time. If it's the same message that you were using before the shutdown it's the wrong message, and the machine is not going to function well. Anyway, so we got the right message. We're putting it out there. It's authentic. It's a good message. But now look, when do we put it out there? That's where you got to look at your timing of when your dips are happening and make sure that you're ramping up right before that dip is coming. Then, whenever it starts to fill back up you pull back off.
Jason Everett:
Right.
Doug Campbell:
So when you get busy again in a couple of weeks you would back off of your marketing, and then as you see that you put it back in. That's just being strategic about the way that you're fueling the machine to get the people in there at the right times.
Jason Everett:
Yeah.
Doug Campbell:
On the pre-booking, people are pre-booking more, of course, because they just went through a scarcity moment of not being able to get in so they want to make sure. It's a great opportunity to get ... If you're pre-books aren't up around 90% then you need to have a talk with your staff about being conscious about being in the moment and taking advantage. Everybody wants to make sure they're getting their next appointment, so help them get what they want. Then-
Jason Everett:
Don't feel like because it's starting to slow down the pre-booking is not as big of a deal anymore because it'll be fine. You're going to hit another window. Think of it like this. Doug, I mentioned this earlier, it's like, ... Do you guys know what rubberneckers are? If you guys know what rubberneckers are type in the chat and say "rubberneckers." When you're driving down the freeway, and this could be anything, car broke down on the side of the road, whether it's running, not running, whatever, on the side of the road, there's a lot of people that like they slow down and they rubberneck by that car. You're like, why is there a traffic jam on the freeway? Because there was some car on the side of the road that was pulled over. The person is standing outside their car, on their cell phone, and everyone's going, Are they okay? Is everything all right? They slow down as they pass that person, and then they speed up.
Jason Everett:
You've got that same blockage in your salon because that rubberneck moment was like everybody's trying to get in so it slows down and it backs up the traffic, and then it's going to get released. So, you're getting that release right on the other side. So, how do you make sure you get rid of that rubbernecking sort of moment where everybody just clogs the spot at that one time. It's like what Doug is saying is make sure that you have advertising. This is about managing traffic flow. That's why they do things like putting in ... Where I live anyway there's signals that like slow down the traffic. You got to release the traffic at specific times or strategically do that. You want to really pay attention to the timing of your marketing and look at it, look at your books, look at what's coming up in the next two or three weeks because in two or three weeks you might be completely slammed.
Jason Everett:
You want to incentivize some people to book eight weeks out and incentivize some people to book two weeks out. Make sure your men's cuts are being scheduled a little tighter, and some of the other people who can stretch out can stretch out a little bit more, but start managing that and then fill in those gaps with your advertising and marketing. Again, Doug, you mentioned something I want to add to is that your marketing should be changing, you guys ready for this, between every 10 to 14 days right now.
Jason Everett:
So many people before this whole thing happened ... Doug, I remember inside the Academy people were like I have the whole rest of my year planned out from social media. Aren't I awesome? They were like, Cool, pandemic, pow, like good luck trying to get your marketing. The whole rest of the year all your marketing is junked. We were even talking about this, is we had to completely revise our plan for the rest of the year for our live events, and what we're doing, and what's going on publicly from a marketing standpoint because ...
Jason Everett:
By the way, it used to be like if you were one year ahead you were doing pretty well. Now, Doug and I are talking about we're planning in little three-month sprints. We're just doing these three-month sprints and just saying, Okay, do we have a general idea of what we want our marketing to look like over the next three months? Really we're changing it up every 10 days to two weeks. We're changing up the messaging. We're changing what we're talking about. We're not deciding what we're going to do on a podcast three months from now, because the world's been an interesting place. Anything could frickin' happen in the next three months. You should be in that same mode. If you're doing some short-term planning would you guys type in the chat for me and just say short term. I want to know, because I think short-term planning makes such a big difference, Doug. What are you guys planning in the salon and barbershop, things like that? How are you guys paying attention to this flow, and cycle, and the short term planning piece, as opposed to your longterm marketing that you were doing?
Doug Campbell:
So right now, which is different than what we were doing before, is that we're focusing on putting that experience part out there, because that's what people are missing. That's the hole that's in their life, and so we want them to come in because if they get the experience in our salon, they start to get some feeling of normalcy back into their life. That's what we're pushing right now. Of course, if the pandemic hadn't happened that would be a little weird ...
Jason Everett:
Yes.
Doug Campbell:
... to be putting it out there in that context. One of the other things I'd say, you can still be putting stuff in your content barn, meaning that there's still ...
Jason Everett:
Bank resources, all that kind of-
Doug Campbell:
... videos, and how tos, and all that stuff. Just because things have changed doesn't mean all of that gets thrown away. You can just repurpose some of that stuff. So, I refer to it as your content barn, just keep storing things away, know where it is so when you want to go grab it you don't always have to redo stuff. But you can-
Jason Everett:
I like that you said barn, by the way, that's very entertaining to me. That's very country of you. He's like my content barn.
Doug Campbell:
My content barn.
Jason Everett:
I like it. A barn you say, huh? Let's call it ... For you city dwellers you can call it your storage unit or your extra closet. It is that place where you get to keep all of those items in your marketing kind of, and like bank them.
Doug Campbell:
Right.
Jason Everett:
Again, the marketing bank that you had, now you have people in before and after pictures, wearing their mask, like it's a big deal. I think being tuned into understanding how to make people still look gorgeous. Doug, you said it really well in our call earlier this week in the Academy, but it really is about showing people how they will still have an amazing world-class experience when they're in the salon, and they'll still feel amazing when they come in and have their salon guest experience. I think it's just extraordinary to be able to do that, provided that they're still safe, and all those things.
Doug Campbell:
Yeah, because you can do both. They're not mutually exclusive, being safe and providing a good, positive experience, and you-
Jason Everett:
Positive being the operative word there for [inaudible 00:17:24]
Doug Campbell:
You're the curator of that. If you're not, as the leader in your salon, putting that positive thing out there and getting people to see it, because there's two ways you can deal with things. I think all the good and bad is out there. You can choose to sail your ship through the positive waters, or you can choose to sail it through the negative. That's completely up to you, but it both exists for you every day. So you can decide where you want to take it. Then it's going to be a better work environment. People are going to enjoy you more. People are going to come to you instead of be, for lack of a better word, repelled from you. So I think those are-
Jason Everett:
There's an interesting book out there and I'm trying to remember the author. I think his name was, this Australian dentist. His name was Dr. Paddi Lund, L-U-N-D, and he wrote a book called The Critical Non-essentials, and I know we did a training in the Academy. Man, how long has it been? It's like three years ago we did a training in the Academy on this. Dr. Paddi Lund, this Australian dentist, had a waiting list of patients for like ... He was six months out before you could see him. It wasn't because like he did some amazing surgery. It was because he focused his entire business on something called The Critical Non-essentials, meaning what are all those little 1% details that make a big difference when people walk in the salon? Things like he had this very fancy coffee machine that did all these things. He had custom, all kinds of custom things all over the dentist office to really make the experience exceptional.
Jason Everett:
Now, this is what I think is really important for you to know about this critical non-essentials is they're critical because they make a huge difference to your salon guests when they're sitting inside your salon. If you didn't have them it wouldn't like make your salon not functional. Does that make sense, you guys? So, if that makes sense, do me a favor and say "makes sense" in the chat. The idea is, is that if you eliminated them nobody would like call and complain and say, Hey, you didn't cut or color my hair. I didn't get a shampoo. I didn't get all this stuff. All of these critical non-essentials make such a massive difference, especially now, especially in this environment. I think what happened, Doug, is so many salons removed all their critical non-essentials. Oh, well, hot towels can't do those anymore. Oh, blow dry can't do that anymore. We're definitely not going to shampoo your hair. I saw people that were doing things like, they were saying, Well, you shampoo your hair at home and come in the salon wet [inaudible 00:19:40] cut your hair.
Jason Everett:
I get from a safety standpoint how some of those things can make sense. Logically you go, Oh, that's a better way. It's a safer way for us to do things. My challenge to you is, how can you maintain safety and still maintain the niceties that used to exist inside the salon? Or, I know that sounds crazy, how do you add some more niceties that are also safeties?
Doug Campbell:
It's just the way that you think. I mean, people today are not bad. I heard one salon was asking people, or told people, that they had to process in their car. They could get their color put on in the salon but then you had to go sit in your car and process. It's like-
Jason Everett:
Ugh.
Doug Campbell:
Yeah, think through it. You can be safe and have a safe environment and still give an amazing experience. Don't give into the, This is my excuse to cut, or just operate from a place of fear. Everybody's got to be in Hazmat suits, and two minutes of contact at a time.
Jason Everett:
I heard this one, too, Doug, and again, I don't even remember who this was. I'm not making fun of anybody specifically, but they said, We're no longer going to do consultations, or tell anybody about retail, because that's too much contact with the guest.
Doug Campbell:
Right.
Jason Everett:
That's just going the wrong direction. Do you know what I'm saying? Again, I've seen the signs that say, Don't touch the retail products on the shelf. The question becomes, Do you put a sign up that says, Don't touch this retail product, ask for help, or do you put up a sign that says, Due to COVID-19 and added restrictions we now offer personalized consultations, and we'll help you with all the product so you don't have to touch it. There's just a different spin on it. Are you putting a positive spin on, or are you saying, Please don't touch no matter what you do?
Doug Campbell:
Yeah.
Jason Everett:
It's a different way to look at it.
Doug Campbell:
Right. You've got the choice. You can go whichever way. The results are going to be some salons are going to get very busy and grow from this, and the other ones are going to be like, I don't know what happened. It's like my business just fell apart. Well, if you were pushy ... It was a negative environment, it was all what you can't do, and have minimum service, minimum experience, same price then yeah, people probably aren't going to be real excited about coming back into your space.
Jason Everett:
Totally. Totally. I completely agree. So guys, if you have enjoyed this podcast do me a favor and say "enjoyed it" down in the comments section. If you are on podcasts listening to us just in your ear spaces, I just want to say thank you for hanging out with us. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being a part of the Evo Revo Podcast with Doug and myself. Every week, we come together to make sure that we're dealing with the hottest topics in the industry. Giving you the latest information, and making sure that your salon can grow in the way that it needs to.
Jason Everett:
If you're listening to us in your ear spaces while you're driving around, we'd love it for you. We love it for you? We would love for you to do us a favor and review the podcast. It makes a big difference. We are reaching lots and lots of people now, and we're getting more and more downloads every single week because of amazing listeners like you. Whether you're watching us on YouTube, on Facebook, on Instagram, after the fact, or anywhere else you could possibly find us, do me a favor and head over to all of our social media at High Performance Salon, or check out highperformancesalon.com. Write a review, leave us a message, and we're working on improving this so that we can give you opportunities to ask questions, interact with us at a higher level, and get more support for your salon. Hopefully today's podcast really helped you to manage that dip and make sure that you don't have any dip in business and, in fact, this year still, as we've been talking about the whole time, Doug, becomes your best year ever. Anything you want to say in closing Doug?
Doug Campbell:
I think that's the thing. This is a springboard to make this your best year ever, and so just take advantage of it in that realm of look for the positive. It is sitting there waiting for you to pick it up.
Jason Everett:
Completely. All right, guys. Thanks and have a great week.
Jason Everett:
Thanks for listening to the Evo Revo Podcast. If you liked today's episode, please subscribe, leave us a review, and you could always get more information, including show notes and the video episodes, at evorevopodcast.com.